Sansevieria pinguicula, also known as the Walking sansevieria, is a xerophytic CAM

Crassulacean acid metabolism

Crassulacean acid metabolism, also known as CAM photosynthesis, is a carbon fixation pathway that evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions. The stomata in the leaves remain shut during the day to reduce evapotranspiration, but open at night to collect carbon dioxide...

 succulent

Succulent plant

Succulent plants, also known as succulents or fat plants, are water-retaining plants adapted to arid climates or soil conditions. Succulent plants store water in their leaves, stems, and also in roots...

 native to the Bura area of Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, near Garissa

Garissa

Garissa is a city in the North Eastern Province of Kenya. It is the capital of both the province and Garissa District.-Overview:Garissa is located at and has a population of 65,881 inhabitants . The Tana River flows through the city....

. The species was described by Peter René Oscar Bally in 1943.

Etymology

The name is derived from the latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 pinguis, meaning "fat", attributed to the shape of the leaves.

Habit

S. pinguicula is a short, erect plant resembling a dwarf agave

Agave

Agave is a genus of monocots. The plants are perennial, but each rosette flowers once and then dies ; they are commonly known as the century plant....

. It is best known for its growing habit: Unlike most Sansevieria which grow from an underground rhizome, this species produces aerial stolons which terminate in new plantlets. These then produce stilt-like roots that extend downward to the ground, resulting in a plant that appears to be walking away from its parent.

Foliage

The blue-green leaves of S. pinguicula are covered in a thick waxy cuticle

Plant cuticle

Plant cuticles are a protective waxy covering produced only by the epidermal cells of leaves, young shoots and all other aerial plant organs without periderm...

, and contain the deepest stomata of any Sansevieria

Sansevieria

Sansevieria is a genus of about 70 species of flowering plants, whose common names include mother-in-law's tongue, devil's tongue, jinn's tongue, bow string hemp, snake plant and snake tongue. It is often included in the genus Dracaena; in the APG III classification system, both genera are placed...

 species. The leaves are arranged in a rosette

Rosette (botany)

In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a single height.Though rosettes usually sit near the soil, their structure is an example of a modified stem.-Function:...

 and lunate

Lunate

Lunate is a term meaning crescent or moon-shaped. In the specialized terminology of lithic reduction, a lunate flake is a small, crescent-shaped flake removed from a stone tool during the process of pressure flaking....

 in cross section. The leaves can be 12–30 cm in length, 2.8-3.5 cm thick, and are tipped with a single sharp spine. A wide channel runs the full length of each leaf and has reddish-brown margins edged with tough, papery white cuticle The underside of each leaf is smooth when water is plentiful but develops deep longitudinal grooves in drier conditions as the plant draws upon the water stored in its leaves, allowing it to survive in one of the most arid

Arid

A region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life...

 regions of Kenya.

Roots

The defining characteristic of S. pinguicula are its thick stilt-like roots. Each rosette produces several of these roots, which can elevate the plant several inches off the ground and are covered in a thick brown cuticle. Fine roots are produced underground and are responsible for nutrient and moisture absorption. During the dry season, the fine roots will die, and the plant will enter dormancy. However, the thick succulent roots survive and the plant will resume growth once the wet season arrives and the roots regrow.

Flowers

Flowers are borne in clusters of 5-6 on an erect branched panicle

Panicle

A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....

 15–32 cm long. The flower bracts are small, brownish and bottle shaped with white anthers and stamens. Fertilized flowers produce globular berries, however very few fruit mature to produce seed. The flower spike develops from the apical meristem and a rosette will no longer grow after blooming. However, the rosette will not die after flowering, and will instead produce many stolons bearing young plantlets.

Cultivation

S. pinguicula is extremely slow growing and requires warm temperatures to grow. It is therefore difficult to find in cultivation. Variegated specimens are highly prized but rarely arise, and are sold at high prices. Normal specimens are more common but still highly sought after due to their unique growing habit.

Soil & Water

In habitat, most Sansevieria are extremely resilient and will thrive in a wide range of soils ranging from clay to nearly bare rock. However, in cultivation, S. pinguicula, like most xerophytic plants, grows best in porous, well drained soil. Excessive watering will cause the fleshy roots to rot, so it is essential that the soil is allowed to dry sufficiently between waterings. Many growers prefer a coarse potting mix consisting of a combination of inorganic and organic ingredients. Gravel

Gravel

Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...

, perlite

Perlite

Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass that has a relatively high water content, typically formed by the hydration of obsidian. It occurs naturally and has the unusual property of greatly expanding when heated sufficiently...

, vermiculite

Vermiculite

Vermiculite is a natural mineral that expands with the application of heat. The expansion process is called exfoliation and it is routinely accomplished in purpose-designed commercial furnaces. Vermiculite is formed by weathering or hydrothermal alteration of biotite or phlogopite...

, and decomposed granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 are commonly used to add weight and improve drainage, while bark

Bark

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...

 chips and coconut coir

Coir

Coir is a natural fibre extracted from the husk of coconut and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes, mattresses etc. Technically coir is the fibrous material found between the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut. Other uses of brown coir are in upholstery...

 or husks are used for moisture retention. Such a porous mix will prevent over watering and provide ample aeration, but requires more frequent watering to prevent over drying.

Temperature

Like most Sansevieria, S. pinguicula will die if temperatures drop below 7°C with wet soil. However, it can survive near freezing temperatures if the soil is dry. The plant grows best in warm daytime temperatures from 25-35°C with cooler night temperatures from 10-20°C.

Light

Most Sansevieria, including S. pinguicula, will survive in a wide range of light conditions from direct outdoor sunlight to deep shade indoors. Under low light conditions the leaves may become etiolated, evident through a darker green colouration of the leaves, which become longer and thinner than usual. S. pinguicula grows best in bright light for 12–16 hours a day. In higher latitudes, many botanical gardens with specimen plants induce dormancy by stopping watering during the winter, when days are too short to sustain normal growth. This cycle roughly emulates the wet and dry seasons of the plant in habitat.

Propagation

Most Sansevieria species seldom set seed, and commercial species such as Sansevieria trifasciata

Sansevieria trifasciata

Sansevieria trifasciata is a species of Sansevieria, native to tropical West Africa from Nigeria east to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is an evergreen herbaceous perennial plant forming dense stands, spreading by way of its creeping rhizome, which is sometimes above ground, sometimes...

 are typically grown using micropropagation

Micropropagation

Micropropagation is the practice of rapidly multiplying stock plant material to produce a large number of progeny plants, using modern plant tissue culture methods....

. However, since S. pinguicula grows so slowly, micropropagation is unprofitable. Therefore, vegetative propagation by division or by leaf cutting is the preferred method.

Division

This can be done by removing and rooting the plantlets produced at the end of each stolon. Since the plantlets grow a rosette of leaves before beginning root growth, when rooting plantlets, it is very important that plantlet is not removed before it has developed stilt roots to a length of at least 3 cm. If removed too soon, the plantlet will not have the energy or water reserves to produce roots before dying. Once stilt roots have been grown to sufficient length, however, the stolon can be cut at any point and the new plant can be potted in slightly moist porous soil.

Depending on conditions, a plantlet can take anywhere from a few weeks to almost a year before producing new roots, and may take even longer to grow fine roots and become established. Division is the preferred method for propagating most specimens, and in particular, variegated specimens, since leaf cuttings typically do not preserve the variegation.

Leaf cutting

Leaf cutting is typically used once rosettes which have already flowered, in which case they and will no longer grow. Whole leaves can be cut from the rosette and set aside for several days to allow the cut to dry. At this point the leaf can be inserted cut-side down into moist porous potting medium to root. Over time, the leaf will produce roots and a stolon from the cut which will bear a new plant at its tip. Since variegation is produced through rare somatic mutations in the apical meristem, this is the preferred method for generating variegated specimens due to the volume of leaves which can be rooted simultaneously.